The EU-funded ARISE Plus programme (Enhanced ASEAN Regional Integration Support from the EU), which is headed by an AETS-led consortium, organised a 2-day workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. The workshop, which took place on the 11th and 12th of July 2018, had the purpose of enhancing the country visit process and thus improve the qualitative data collection methods currently being used during compliance monitoring.

Compliance monitoring is one of the ASEAN Integration Monitoring Division’s (AIMD) responsibilities in the scope of its task of implementing the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework for the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint (AECB) 2025.

The compliance monitoring process is comprised of collecting both quantitative and qualitative data from various ASEAN regional bodies and member states with regards to their annual commitments towards the implementation of the AECB 2025. The collection of data by the AIMD allows for support mechanisms to be put in place, if necessary, to improve the states’ performance towards the specified commitments of the AECB 2025. AIMD is responsible for consolidating and analysing data from the compliance monitoring database and country visits.

The workshop, which was entitled “Enhancement of the Country Visit Process in AEC Compliance Monitoring”, was largely attended by the AIMD staff, and consisted of presentations by experts, discussions and exchanges personalised to meet the needs of the AIMD. Furthermore, international and EU best practices with regards to compliance monitoring were also presented as illustrative examples for the AIMD.

The overall outcomes of the workshop were expected to have been implemented during the country visits to Brunei and Malaysia, which took place in the second-half of 2018.

The successful AETS-led predecessor, ARISE Programme which ran from 2012 to 2016, has provided important know-how and prior experience with regards to the programme. AETS now leads an impressive consortium comprised of AECOM, Fratini Vergano and ARTEMIS, in the implementation of the ARISE Plus programme, whose first phase runs from 2017 to 2020.